Social & Content.

A four-week content plan and the City Stellar launch.

Dylan Dick Social & Content Lead case study · July 2026

Buyer

35–55 urban commuter

Launch

Pre-orders open · Q4 2026 delivery

Positioning

Premium commuter · $2,099 CAD pre-order

Creator model

Limited units · rights agreed before shipment

Planning assumptions: Apollo can provide a limited pool of loaned or gifted units; creator deliverables, disclosure and organic usage are agreed in writing before shipment; paid usage and whitelisting are licensed separately for a defined term. Internal product and performance data would supersede public sources.

The comments are already telling Apollo what to make.

20+ recent uploads · the same four questions keep coming back

400+

comments & replies across recent Apollo uploads

YouTube

22.8K subscribers

What breaks out

Buying guides reach 5–13K; “Yes, It's an Apollo” reached 32K.

Keep / change

Keep buying guides and factory access. Get to the comparison criteria faster.

What comments ask

Value, service and product limits.

TikTok

21.5K followers

What breaks out

One pinned post reached 3.9M; most of the grid sits at 1–4.6K.

Keep / change

Keep the commute and stunt hooks. Give TikTok original creator cuts.

What comments ask

Potholes, legality, weather and daily fit.

Instagram

31.8K followers

What breaks out

The @lifeofzir collab worked once; I would make it a weekly slot.

Keep / change

Keep collabs and Mile Madness. Bring owners into the feed every week.

The role

This is where ownership and community should feel real.

Operating thesis

YouTube leads: it best matches Apollo's higher-intent buyer and already plays the largest role in purchase discovery. Engaged views are the north-star KPI, with an initial goal of 2× the current baseline. The operating lever is a reliable weekly flow of in-house, creator and affiliate content.

I'd build the month around four questions a buyer actually asks.

They show up over and over in the comments. Each week has one buyer question and one anchor idea per platform; Shorts, replies and Stories extend that idea across the weekly cadence.

Week	The question	YouTube	TikTok	Instagram
01	Does it fit my commute?	Model comparison · IH	Rain route test · CR	Fit carousel · IH
02	What is owning one like?	Service walkthrough · IH	Maintenance answer · OWN	Owner story · OWN
03	What does the premium buy?	Spanish Banks → UBC hill test · AFF	The deciding difference · CR	Creator Collab Reel · CR
04	What should I know before ordering?	Buyer guide · IH	Comment replies · IH	FAQ + Stories · IH

IH in-house · CR creator · AFF affiliate · OWN owner/community

The first three pieces I'd make

YouTube long-form · “Stellar or City 2.0?”

Apollo's comparison videos already work, and this is the decision a pre-order buyer is making now. Long-form gives the comparison room to prove it.

TikTok / Shorts · “$9/day to park. $0.11 to charge.”

A quantified first-frame hook makes the commuter value understandable immediately, then earns the right to show the product.

Instagram Collab Reel · “I replaced my car for a week.”

The @lifeofzir collab proved the format. A Collab Reel gives the story creator credibility and distribution from both accounts.

Weekly cadence: YouTube 1 long-form + 3 Shorts · TikTok 3 posts · Instagram 3 Reels + Stories. Start around 75/25 in-house to creator, moving toward 60/40 once the pipeline is reliable.

How I'd make “Stellar or City 2.0?” without wasting the shoot.

One YouTube comparison, planned from day one to produce three useful vertical cuts.

Before the shoot

Start with the comments: what makes the extra $200 and 11 lb worth it?
Lock the facts with Product. Write three hooks, a must-have shot list, references, location and weather backup.
Put deliverables, rights, review windows and two pickup rounds in writing.

Shoot day

Same rider, route, mode and conditions for both scooters.
Shoot the result and all three hooks first. Then A-roll, matched passes, 16:9, 9:16 and clean sound.
Send a first-hour sample over Slack. Keep a live shot log and back up the cards before leaving.

After the shoot

Cut the YouTube video first. Each Short answers one smaller question.
Product checks facts. I review the story, title, thumbnail, captions, pinned FAQ and tracked link.
Check packaging after 24 hours. Read retention, engaged views and product clicks after seven days.

If footage comes back off-brief

Pickup roundIn-house proofAwareness recut

If footage comes back off-brief, I audit it against the approved brief and shot list, start the strongest honest edit immediately, then request only the missing pickups with timestamps and reference frames. If a reshoot is impossible, I rewrite around what the footage can honestly prove or repurpose it as an awareness cut. I would never use AI to fake product evidence.

I'd make the City Stellar launch a public testing series.

Campaign idea: The City Test. Take one question from the comments, run the test under clear conditions, and let people choose what Apollo tests next.

A comment becomes an Apollo test → Creators repeat it in their city → Owners report back after real miles

T−8 TO T−4 WEEKS · INVOLVE

Build the test list

Apollo runs one audience-selected test each week while buyers wait: potholes, braking distance, the $200 upgrade and winter range.

Goal: Build qualified awareness and collect objections.

Measure: Engaged views, comment rate, test submissions and product-page CTR.

T−3 WEEKS TO LAUNCH · PROVE

Hand it to creators

Review units go out under embargo. Independent coverage lands around launch, supported by a comparison page and tracked links.

Goal: Turn curiosity into credible consideration.

Measure: Creator retention, product visits, branded search and pre-order conversion.

LAUNCH TO +6 WEEKS · VALIDATE

Let owners take over

First owners repeat the winning tests and add first-100-mile, winter and service diaries.

Goal: Validate ownership and sustain conversion.

Measure: Affiliate revenue, owner submissions, cancellation rate and reusable footage.

Platform roles

YouTube · Prove: full tests, comparisons, buying guides and ownership explainers.

TikTok · Stop: strongest test moments, comment replies and creator-native cuts.

Instagram · Belong: Collab Reels, owner diaries, polls and saveable education.

The creator offer changes with the job.

YouTube

Help someone make the decision

I'd start with smaller scooter reviewers and urbanist channels: RK9 Rides, Electric Scooter Academy, Shifter and Oh The Urbanity. Each pitch would reference a recent upload and propose one City Test suited to their format — not send a generic product blast.

The offer

Early access, a loaner and tracked affiliate commission. The review remains independent; any b-roll licence is negotiated separately.

TikTok + Reels

Make the scooter hard to ignore

Here I care more about camera instinct than scooter authority. I would find action-sports, mobility and commute creators through FYP/Explore, competitor engagers and local dealer communities.

The deal

Product-for-content = contracted content: 3 agreed concepts, deadlines, disclosure, safety rules and raw files. Organic reposting on Apollo-owned channels is included; paid usage or whitelisting requires a separate, time-boxed licence.

Owners

Make ownership believable

Some of the best creators may already be in Apollo's CRM. I would recruit from Apollo Lab, Mile Madness, tagged posts, prior customers, repair shops and store communities.

The offer

Accessory credit, feature placement and tracked commission can turn a happy customer into an ongoing owner diary.

I would score every seed on engaged views, product clicks, affiliate sales, whether they posted on time, and how much footage Apollo can use again. Pure seeding carries no post obligation. Product-for-content does.

Retention tells me what broke. Revenue tells me whether it mattered.

Change one thing, read the graph, and put the lesson into the next brief.

Test 1 · The hook

Same video, two openings: “$0.11 to commute” vs “0–34 mph.”

Use Instagram Trial Reels for a non-follower read. Test Shorts in separate windows or matched paid cells.

Read the first three seconds, engaged-view rate, average % viewed and product clicks.

Scale the winner if engaged-view rate improves by at least 15% without reducing product CTR.

Test 2 · The proof format

Same creator footage, two edits: a labelled test vs a week-in-the-life diary.

Keep the creator, product, CTA and length as close as possible.

Read completion, saves/shares, product clicks and affiliate revenue.

Scale the format that improves completion and saves/shares; use affiliate revenue as the tie-breaker.

I use the first 24 hours to catch obvious misses, then make the real call after seven days. Once a week I update the hook, format and creator library so the same lesson does not get relearned.

Reading the retention graph

A cliff in the first seconds means the hook missed. A drop when the test begins means the payoff took too long or did not feel believable. Strong retention with weak clicks sends me to the CTA, offer or product page. High public views with weak engaged views gives me nothing worth scaling.

Made for the long way home.

Dylan Dick Social & Content Lead case study · July 2026

What your comments are asking for.

I went through 20+ Apollo uploads and 400+ public comments and replies, then checked what I found against competitor and creator videos. Three things stood out. I'd want Apollo's internal analytics before calling any of it a broader trend.

The comments are a content calendar.

People keep asking about potholes, stem safety, service, price, theft and delivery. Every one of those is a video waiting to be made.

Apollo's videos start real conversations — 8× more than Segway's.

People want to talk about the engineering, so factory access and build detail are worth leaning into. Independent creators bring the reach: RK9 pulls several times Apollo's views on the same topics.

The best future scripts are already sitting in the replies.

The team already writes thoughtful answers about certifications, repairs and design tradeoffs. Each one deserves its own 60-second video.

Worth fixing first

Before the creator briefs go out: the press release and product page disagree on peak wattage, and shipping says Q3 in one place and Q4 in another.